Page 165 - Beholding Liberty!

in the premises of Kaltetzes Monastery in Mantineia, a Pan-Peloponnesian assembly takes place presided over
by Petros Mavromichalis, with the participation of kodjabashis, clergy, some military men and members
of the Society of Friends. On 26 May the Assembly issues a statement
by which it announced the election of an executive committee under the name «Peloponnesian Senate».
Gradually, the wave of Revolution grows gigantic outside the Peloponnese, too; the local clergy blesses the arms and the Struggle begins: on 27 March 1821, at the Monastery of Hosios Loukas,
the bishop of Salona, Isaias, officiates at a patriotic ceremony; in Livadia,
on the 1st April, Athanasios Diakos raises the flag of the Revolution;
on 6 April on Psara, people and shipowners hoist the ensign of freedom, receiving blessings via an ecclesiastical ritual and loud gun firing, and
on 17 April, Sunday of Thomas,
on Samos a ritual is performed entailing taking an oath and raising the Greek
IΙ.1
The eruption of the Revolution
«As a rain fell on us the desire for our freedom»
Theodoros Kolokotronis, Speech to Gymnasium pupils at Pnyx, 8 October 1838
flag; in May an uprising manifests
itself in the peninsula of Athos, with Emmanuel Pappas as instigator, which
is joined by hundreds of monks, while
on Andros, too, the enlightener deacon Theofilos Kairis undertakes a leading role in the local uprising, who on the 10th May raised the flag of the revolution in the cathedral of Saint Georgios after an emotional thanksgiving church service; at Pelio the local declaration
of the Revolution, on Sunday
8 May 1821, coincided with
the Resurrection of Christ.
In retaliation for the uprising of
his flock, the Turks hang in Constantinople Patriarch Gregory V
and the members of the Holy Synod,
on Easter Sunday the 10th April 1821. Following its desecration, the dead
body of the national martyr the Patriarch is thrown in the sea. Nevertheless, the victorious
for the Greeks confrontations
on land and at sea succeed one another. The revolutionary fervour is now
general and irrepressible.
Η ΑΦΥΠΝΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Από την αρχαιολατρία στον Φιλελληνισμό 165